Teresa Reviews Dying on Stage (2021)

Teresa reviews Dying on Stage (2021) and found too many plot thread hanging around like broken guitar strings.

(Mourir sur Scène)

(c)2024 by Teresa Peschel

Agatha adjacent? 3 falling spotlights

You should recognize the plot device from Peril at End House; both in how the primary murder victim dies and who the true villain is.

Quality of movie: 31/2 falling spotlights

The script introduced too much plot that it then ignored.

Read more of Teresa’s Agatha Christie movie reviews at Peschel Press.

Also, follow Teresa’s discussion of these movie on her podcast.

What a great set-up. Sky and Nelly, a pop duo like Sonny and Cher, are touring France and have arrived in Lille.

If you’ve forgotten Sonny and Cher, they were a singing duo from the ’60s and ’70s and were, once, the biggest pop stars in the world. They were married, toured the world, hosted a hit TV variety show with skits and musical guests, and Cher wore the most dramatic costumes. She’s still performing at 77. Sonny remade himself into a California politician and died in 1998.

There are probably many similarities tucked into the film for true fans to spot connecting Nelly to Cher and Sky to Sonny. It’s been decades since I last thought of them so I don’t know.

I do know they got divorced, rather than separating more dramatically via murder.

As you’d expect when famous pop stars arrive in a provincial town, the groupies pour in, the media arrives in force, and Sky and Nelly are on the front page of every newspaper. They’re followed by fans wherever they go. Even nonfans are forced to pay attention. Make sure you pay attention to the brunette groupie professing her love for Sky to the reporter.

You’ll see her again, and if you don’t pay attention, you’ll get confused like I did because her part is woefully underwritten considering how important she becomes.

Rose is forced to pay attention because one of her clients, Rico, is a songwriter. He’s fixated on the idea that Sky stole his song. Sky is rich and famous while Rico is an also-ran musician ready to go to any length to prove Sky’s plagiarism. Rose wants to keep Rico out of trouble, but he’s not making it easy. It becomes a bigger problem when a spotlight falls during rehearsal, narrowly missing Sky and killing the guitarist. To Rose’s horror, Rico had infiltrated the building and could be a suspect for what Gréco quickly discovers wasn’t an accident. The spotlight was made to fall.

Sky, Nelly, and their manager, Georges Oskian, don’t want to stop the tour despite someone wanting Sky dead. Sky adores the limelight. Nelly adores Sky and does whatever he wants. Georges needs the money desperately to pay the bills. This subplot was woefully underwritten too. Georges apparently borrowed money to keep the tour going, the bills aren’t being paid, and he’s repeatedly threatened by a thug about the money. Yet it’s never resolved, other than Beretta beating up the thug. The thug’s boss accepts that he’s out that cash? I guess?

Since Nelly (love the French pronunciation of her name) and Sky are pop stars, they’ve got several musicians and backup dancers touring with them. Where musicians in the ’70s go, you get drugs. There are several scenes mentioning the free-floating drug market surrounding the band. The drug dealer offers his wares to Beretta, undercover as a replacement guitarist, but is refused. Beretta does get the dealer’s contact information so he arrests him later? Maybe? You won’t get an answer.

Wait. Beretta is the replacement guitarist, filling in for the musician who got hit by a falling skylight? Yes, because how else do you arrange for one of our stars to guard Sky? It turns out that Beretta is a guitarist and plays regularly. He never did anything with music, though, because his father was vehemently opposed. He’s not quite the right guitarist for a poppy band like Sky and Nelly but he, with Rose’s professional psychiatric advice and fashion sense, figures out how to play in front of an audience while looking the part.

In addition to assigning Beretta as Sky’s bodyguard and backup guitarist, Gréco conducts actual police work. She learns that Nelly’s real name is Odile Vivier. Nelly has a long-estranged sister named Sandrine who, conveniently, lives in Lille and runs a florist shop. In yet another woefully underwritten subplot you learn Nelly ran off to become a famous pop star, leaving Sandrine behind in the provinces to take care of their ailing mother. Nelly has some sad scenes where she asks Georges if Sandrine has contacted them so the sisters can reconcile. Georges tells her no.

But you’re left wondering: If Nelly cared so much, why didn’t she pay for mom’s care? She was a famous pop star and must have had some spare cash. Why didn’t she visit mom and Sandrine in Lille when she wasn’t touring? Sandrine later tells Gréco that she loves her sister but then why the estrangement? Was Georges or Sky involved to keep Nelly focused on fame and music and away from distractions like needy relatives? Maybe it was bad subtitles, but you won’t learn.

Meanwhile, back at the police station, Beretta has a rip-roaring birthday party complete with heavily spiked punch. Chief Inspector Legoff is distraught over not being included with the gang. Throughout the episode, you’ll see Rose apply her psychiatric skills to reassure him that he’s the lion in charge, not some hapless, lost soul whom nobody likes.

Gréco has a different experience because of the spiked punch. She wakes up in Coroner Blum’s bed, after enjoying a bacchanalian evening with him that she doesn’t remember.

He, however, does. He lays on the charm, trying to woo her back into his bed and she must fend off his advances while trying to figure out exactly what she did.

I mentioned that this episode uses plot elements for Peril at End House (1932). You’ll think that pop stars have little to do with a woman afraid for her life and begging Poirot for help but Agatha’s tropes can take on fresh new shapes. It’s obvious that Sky is in danger. Sandrine hates him. The band photographer turns out to be passionately devoted to Nelly and dislikes Sky. Nelly’s devotion to Sky turns out to be not quite as passionate as she, Sky, and Georges want you to believe. Rico, Rose’s patient, stalks Sky hoping for a big payout on plagiarism charges. There are thugs and dealers who want to get paid. Crazed fans stalk them, following the band from venue to venue. Sky’s brunette groupie drinks poisoned champagne meant for him.

Then, before Nelly walks outside their apartment to take in the night air, Sky wraps his distinctive brown and white fur vest around her because it’s chilly. She steps out onto the balcony and is shot by a mysterious gunman who mistakes her for Sky.

Proof! Everyone wants Sky dead!

Except that, like in End House, you’re looking at the evidence the wrong way around. Gréco gradually realizes that, as with Blum’s story about their debauched evening together, what she sees isn’t real. Georges is devoted to Sky and Nelly. Nelly does love Sky. But Sky doesn’t love Nelly. He needs to dump that anchor around his neck and move onto a lucrative solo career jumpstarted by being seen by millions of fans as a grieving widower. Oh, and he also wants a man of his own, just like he’s been singing about.

Suddenly, Sky and Nelly aren’t like Sonny and Cher at all.